The lives and times of the most famous people that have shaped law or legal institutions, from all nations and eras and based only on merit. Most are lawyers but this is not a necessary criteria for inclusion.

More so than with other topics, we should consider the origin of law, lest we forget the hard-earned lessons of our blood-stained past, or the comforts of our daily lives which only the rule of law can provide.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Thus is best known the ancient Code of Hammurabi, one of the codifications which began the very slow process of conversion from the rule of man, to the rule of law.

The birth and short life of the League of Nations was one of the most important events in the history of law, so full of the ultimate of human promise: to end world war. Events (i.e. Adolph Hitler) would blitzkrieg the League but from cinders would grow the United Nations.

China - A Legal History is a 3-part article detailing the history of the development of law - legal history - in China from 2,500 BC to the 20th Century; a wild ride of religion, bamboo strips, tortoise shells ... and a little bit of law for good measure!

Hoity-toity royalty and barons, earls and the like, the Mother country of the common law just cannot be undone when it comes to crazy laws. My lords, my ladies, other ladies and gentlemen, we give you England!

The progress of British criminal law through the medieval ages is the history of all nations that now embrace a common law heritage. It is a story of slow progress; of epiphanies, albeit too few and too far between.

The life and times of Eugene Victor Debs, an icon of American labor law who always put the interests of others before his own, serving several jail terms to fight for the cause of beleaguered workers in an emerging industrialized world.

Real property has traditionally been the most valuable of all property. Long are the days when possession or might made a landowner. But the history of real estate law sets a fascinating background to this branch of the law rich in verbiage and ancient principles.

It is with every caution that a jurist would even use the word "law" in the same sentence as some of the statutes and lamented by adult Hitler's Nazi government between 1933 and 1943, all, in any event, a charade of a prelude to genocide.

While we may extol the virtues of the Roman law, and its progeny, the civil law, the punishments given to convicted criminals under that system of "law and justice" will forever blemish the pages of history.

The law has no true holy grail ... yet. Archaeologists have Hammurabi's code circa 1780 B.C. But complex Egyptian and Sumerian societies flourished thousands of years earlier. It could not of occurred without law. Where is the law's holy grail?

TThere is an ancient North American expression, "wild, wild west", now in disuse since any historic technological deficiencies of the Pacifi...

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Duhaime Lawisms

Jurisprudence is a word which stinks in the nostrils of a practising barrister.
Albert Dicey, 1880 (England)

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Unless otherwise noted, this article was written by Lloyd Duhaime, Barrister, Solicitor, Attorney and Lawyer (and Notary Public!). It is not intended to be legal advice and you would be foolhardy to rely on it in respect to any specific situation you or an acquaintance may be facing. In addition, the law changes rapidly and sometimes with little notice so from time to time, an article may not be up to date. Therefore, this is merely legal information designed to educate the reader. If you have a real situation, this information will serve as a good springboard to get legal advice from a lawyer.